BOSTON — Over the winter, the Boston Red Sox handed Alex Cora, a native of Puerto Rico and a former player, the reins of a talented team with realistic World Series aspirations. It was a first not just for him — he had never been a major league manager — but also for this storied franchise. None of the previous 46 managers in its 118-year history were Latino, or members of any other minority group.

For a city and a franchise with complicated histories of racial tension, Cora represents, at the very least, symbolic change.

The pride in him is evident among many in the growing community of Puerto Ricans in Massachusetts, with a sizable number in the Boston area and 300,000 over all in the state. It is one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the mainland United States.

“From our beautiful little island, there’s someone representing it well,” said Gustavo Marrero, 62, who moved to Boston from the island 20 years ago and was fixated on a recent game while he nursed a beer at a local Puerto Rican restaurant, El Mondonguito. “You feel so much pride.”

As the Red Sox begin their pursuit of a championship this weekend with an American League division series against the Yankees, fans, a majority of them white, will fill Fenway Park in Boston. But amid the growing community of Puerto Ricans, Cora, 42, one of the few Latino managers in a sport in which nearly a third of the players have Latin American heritage, holds special significance.

“I know I’m the manager of the Red Sox, the great season we’re having and the pride people feel,” Cora said, sitting in his office before the playoffs began. “But it’s weird to be told that, no matter where. Your family tells you they’re proud of you. But when a stranger tells you that, it moves you.”

Decades ago, it would have been hard to imagine Cora in this position. Boston wrestled with significant civil unrest arising from school desegregation in the 1970s, and the Red Sox were the last major league team to integrate.

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Cora played several seasons in Puerto Rico’s winter league, keeping close ties to the island where he was born.CreditJuan Barreto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

That legacy haunted the current Red Sox owner, John Henry, so much that he successfully lobbied city officials to change the name of a street adjacent to Fenway Park, Yawkey Way, which was a homage to Tom Yawkey, the team’s longtime owner who resisted employing black players. It is now Jersey Street, which was its original name.

Over the years, some black players on visiting teams have said fans yelled racial taunts at them from the stands. Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican community in Boston has grown significantly over the past two decades, and some people who are part of that population have expressed uneasiness about how they are treated in the city.

Luis Rivera, 58, a school custodian and a Red Sox fan who moved to Boston from Puerto Rico at age 17, said he had felt uncomfortable attending games at Fenway Park with his brothers 20 years ago. As one of the few Puerto Ricans in his neighborhood back then, he heard insensitive comments.

“Things have gotten better,” he said. “The racism is improving.”

Cora said that he was aware of Boston’s history, but that in his playing days here from 2005 to 2008, when he was an infielder, and this season as a manager — both periods of success for the team — he and his family had been treated well.

It helped that three of the biggest figures in recent Red Sox history were Latinos, all from the Dominican Republic: Pedro Martinez, the Hall of Fame starting pitcher; Manny Ramirez, the enigmatic slugger, and David Ortiz, the beloved, larger-than-life power hitter.

“Those guys were huge in being a buffer,” Mike Lowell, a former Red Sox third baseman, said. Lowell, who was born in San Juan but raised in Miami, was the World Series M.V.P. and Cora’s teammate on Boston’s 2007 championship team.

“In our playing days, there were so many Puerto Rican and Dominican neighborhoods, we’d go to restaurants and get our seafood soup,” Lowell added. “We felt that in a big city there was a nice melting pot. When you’re playing well, no one cares. You’re on a pedestal there.”

Cora grew up in Caguas, P.R., 20 miles south of San Juan, and baseball was a big part of his youth. Cora’s father, who died of colon cancer when Cora was 13, was heavily involved in Little League. Cora’s brother, Joey, who is 11 years older, enjoyed an 11-year major league career, earning money that allowed him to take care of his mother, younger brother and sisters after their father died. While at the University of Miami, Alex Cora missed his family and his island but pressed on at his brother’s urging.

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At El Mondonguito, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. Puerto Ricans in the city root a little harder for the Red Sox with one of their own as the manager.CreditAdam Glanzman for The New York Times

Even as he played in parts of 14 major league seasons, Cora heeded his roots. On the road with the Red Sox, Lowell and Cora often ate lunch together and spent hours talking about baseball and the island. Cora often mentioned how much he wanted to help the development of baseball in Puerto Rico.

His mother, sisters and daughter still live there, and he does, too, in the off-season. During a recent news conference after a game, he wore a T-shirt that read “Isla Nuestra” (“Our Island”).

Cora suited up for the Criollos de Caguas team in Puerto Rico’s winter league for five seasons, even as interest in playing waned among major leaguers, and he eventually served as the team’s manager and general manager. He also played for and later was the general manager of the Puerto Rican team in the World Baseball Classic.

“We understand our place here in the big leagues,” said his brother, who is a coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. “We understand we’re representing our country. But that’s a huge burden and responsibility.”

As he negotiated his three-year contract with the Red Sox as manager, Cora made one request: the use of a plane and help in securing supplies so as to assist Puerto Rico in its recovery from hurricanes Irma and Maria. Cora was joined in his efforts by Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston, Red Sox president Sam Kennedy and other team officials, plus some Red Sox players, including catcher Christian Vazquez and pitchers Rick Porcello and Chris Sale.

Cora has been unafraid to speak his mind in matters pertaining to Puerto Rico, and last month he called President Trump’s tweets discrediting the death toll from Hurricane Maria “disrespectful.”

“I’m the only Puerto Rican with this platform, and I know people are paying attention,” Cora said in an interview later.

Meanwhile, the lack of diversity among managers has not been lost on Cora.

While there are many Latino coaches in the major leagues, there was only one Latino manager in each of the previous three seasons. With the hiring of Cora in Boston and Dave Martinez in Washington, joining Rick Renteria of the Chicago White Sox, the number jumped to three this season, the most since 2012.

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If the Red Sox happen to win the World Series, Cora would be only the second manager born in Latin America to claim the title.CreditPaul Rutherford/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

The only Latin American-born manager to win the World Series is Ozzie Guillen, who was born in Venezuela and won it all with the Chicago White Sox in 2005. Before Cora, the first major league manager from Puerto Rico was Edwin Rodríguez of the Miami Marlins, in 2010.

Cora said he hopes for the day that minority candidates are interviewed for managerial openings not because of diversity mandates but simply because they are viewed as equally capable options. He first drew interest for a manager’s job while serving as a television broadcaster. But after spending last year as the bench coach for the Houston Astros, who became the World Series champions, his profile grew to the point that the Detroit Tigers, the Mets and the Red Sox all pursued him as a possible manager.

“I don’t focus on being a minority or being Puerto Rican,” Cora said. “Obviously, I know it’s important for us, what I’m doing. It’s not like I come to work saying, ‘I need to do well for Puerto Rico.’ I need to do it well for myself and for my job.”

Cora said his background does make a difference in communicating with Spanish-speaking players. At first, he worried that some Latino players would see him as a friend — not a boss — in the manager’s office, but Cora said that has not been an issue because he has made clear the rules apply equally to everyone.

“When you have an American manager, no matter if you speak the best English in the world, you can’t express yourself the way you want,” said Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodríguez, who is Venezuelan. “In Spanish, it’s different. But he has a good relationship with the Latinos, the Americans, everyone.”

Even though much of the team is the same as it was last year, when John Farrell was the manager, it made major strides in 2018, setting a franchise record with 108 wins during the regular season. Players credited Cora’s personality and communication skills with improving the team chemistry.

Back at El Mondonguito, in the working-class neighborhood of Roxbury, fans watching a recent game feasted on mondongo (a traditional tripe and vegetable soup), fried pork and empanadas, washing it all down with cheap beer. Red Sox and Puerto Rican decorations adorned the walls. Wednesday is domino night.

None of the regulars, a group of friendly and opinionated middle-aged Puerto Rican men, knew Cora personally, but each felt a strong tie to him. They will all be cheering in the coming days.

“They’ll win it all this year,” Marrero said. “It’ll bring so much Puerto Rican pride.”